Games inhabit these wonderful, virtual worlds. Each one can have its own culture, history, and societies. They are extraordinary things. But know what makes these places even more special? When it turns out one isn’t an isolated incident. Rather, they are instead somehow connected to another game we love in an unexpected and delightful way. While this seems like a longshot, it is actually something that happens more often than you’d expect. And each time such a connection occurs, people benefit from knowing how horizons expand.

Assassin’s Creed and Watch Dogs

This is one shared universe that has been discussed quite a bit, what with Ubisoft having confirmed that the Assassin’s Creed and Watch Dogs series are set in the same universe. Not only that, but during similar time periods! What is happening in the modern segments in Assassin’s Creed is running alongside the Watch Dogs timeline. Abstergo Industries’ Olivier Garneau is shown heading to Chicago in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Aiden Pearce can kill Garneau in Watch Dogs, and now Assassin’s Creed: Origins confirms that Pearce did in fact kill Garneau. It’s a neat way to show how one game can influence another!

Bioware has never really confirmed Mass Effect and Dragon Age share a universe, but there is plenty of evidence to suggest the planet Dragon Age is set on is in Mass Effect’s galaxy, or that they may share a timeline. In Mass Effect, you can hear someone referring to a divine being as The Maker, which is how people in Dragon Age refer to their god. There is an Ogre statue in Mass Effect 2’s Kasumi’s Stolen Memory add-on. In Dragon Age: Inquisition, a Krogan’s head is mounted on the walls of Orlesian mansions. During one interview, BioWare’s Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk suggested that maybe Commander Shepard had Blood Dragon armor in Mass Effect 2 because the Dragon Age series exists in that universe as a game. Maybe magic in Dragon Age is really some sort of biotics?

Souls and Tekken

This is another unconfirmed case of universe sharing, but one that seems like it could make sense if we consider a cameo something greater. Yoshimitsu is a character that appears in both the Soul series and Tekken series. However, in Soulcalibur, it is established that the head of each generation of the Manji Clan is called Yoshimitsu They all use the same sword, seem to look and act in similar ways, and are considered the “same person.” However, they are different people taking a role. Yoshimitsu I is in Soulcalibur through Soulcalibur IV, succeeded by Yoshimitsu II in Soul Calibur V. An entirely different Yoshimitsu, one who is current head of the Manji Clan, appears in Tekken 1-7. And, as sn00zer pointed out on NeoGAF long ago, Soulcalibur’s Pirate’s Alcove and Tekken 5’s Pirate’s Cove look like they are the exact same stage, only during different time periods.

DOOM and Wolfenstein

Did you know Wolfenstein and DOOM are set in the same universe? You need to start looking at spin-offs for things to make sense, but it works. It all starts with Captain William Joseph (B.J.) Blazkowicz, hero of almost every Wolfenstein game. In Wolfenstein RPG, he fights the Harbinger of Doom demon and takes off an arm and a leg in the fight. Well, the Cyberdemon in the first DOOM, DOOM 3, and the 2016 DOOM is missing an arm and a leg, with them being replaced by mechanical weapons. There is also a reference to B.J. Blazkowicz in DOOM RPG and Sargeant Stan Blazkowicz is in DOOM II RPG. Certainly seems like there could be a connection.

Hitman and Kane & Lynch

Let’s go ahead and wrap this up with another confirmed shared universe. Both the Hitman and Kane & Lynch games exist in the same world. This one is huge, because we actually see the other characters! In Hitman: Blood Money, two of the in-game newspaper stories points out that two bank robbers have escaped. But then, in Hitman: Absolution, you see both Adam “Kane” Marcus and James Seth Lynch. The former appears during the “Welcome to Hope” and “Skurky’s Law” missions, while the latter appears during “Birdie’s Gift.”